The Passage from the Brazils to the Cape of Good Hope; with an Account
of the Transactions of the Fleet there.
Our passage from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope was equally
prosperous with that which had preceded it. We steered away to the
south-east, and lost sight of the American coast the day after our
departure. From this time until the 13th of October, when we made the
Cape, nothing remarkable occurred, except the loss of a convict in the
ship I was on board, who unfortunately fell into the sea, and perished
in spite of our efforts to save him, by cutting adrift a life buoy and
hoisting out a boat. During the passage, a slight dysentery prevailed
in some of the ships, but was in no instance mortal. We were at first
inclined to impute it to the water we took on board at the Brazils, but
as the effect was very partial, some other cause was more probably the
occasion of it.
At seven o'clock in the evening of the 13th of October, we cast anchor
in Table Bay, and found many ships of different nations in the harbour.
Little can be added to the many accounts already published of the Cape
of Good Hope, though, if an opinion on the subject might be risqued, the
descriptions they contain are too flattering. When contrasted with Rio
de Janeiro, it certainly suffers in the comparison. Indeed we arrived at
a time equally unfavourable for judging of the produce of the soil and
the temper of its cultivators, who had suffered considerably from a
dearth that had happened the preceding season, and created a general
scarcity. Nor was the chagrin of these deprivations lessened by the news
daily arriving of the convulsions that shook the republic, which could
not fail to make an impression even on Batavian phlegm.
As a considerable quantity of flour, and the principal part of the live
stock, which was to store our intended settlement, were meant to be
procured here, Governor Phillip lost no time in waiting on Mynheer Van
Graaffe, the Dutch Governor, to request permission (according to the
custom of the place) to purchase all that we stood in need of. How far
the demand extended, I know not, nor Mynheer Van Graaffe's reasons for
complying with it in part only. To this gentleman's political sentiments
I confess myself a stranger; though I should do his politeness and
liberality at his own table an injustice, were I not to take this public
opportunity of acknowledging them; nor can I resist the opportunity
which presents itself, to inform my readers, in honor of M. Van
Graaffe's humanity, that he has made repeated efforts to recover the
unfortunate remains of the crew of the Grosvenor Indiaman, which was
wrecked about five years ago on the coast of Caffraria. This information
was given me by Colonel Gordon, commandant of the Dutch troops at the
Cape, whose knowledge of the interior parts of this country surpasses
that of any other man. And I am sorry to say that the Colonel added,
these unhappy people were irrecoverably lost to the world and their
friends, by being detained among the Caffres, the most savage set of
brutes on earth.
His Excellency resides at the Government house, in the East India
Company's garden. This last is of considerable extent, and is planted
chiefly with vegetables for the Dutch Indiamen which may happen to touch
at the port. Some of the walks are extremely pleasant from the shade
they afford, and the whole garden is very neatly kept. The regular lines
intersecting each other at right angles, in which it is laid out, will,
nevertheless, afford but little gratification to an Englishman, who
has been used to contemplate the natural style which distinguishes the
pleasure grounds of his own country. At the head of the centre walks
stands a menagerie, on which, as well as the garden, many pompous
eulogiums have been passed, though in my own judgment, considering the
local advantages possessed by the Company, it is poorly furnished
both with animals and birds; a tyger, a zebra, some fine ostriches, a
cassowary, and the lovely crown-fowl, are among the most remarkable.
The table land, which stands at the back of the town, is a black dreary
looking mountain, apparently flat at top, and of more than eleven
hundred yards in height. The gusts of wind which blow from it are
violent to an excess, and have a very unpleasant effect, by raising
the dust in such clouds, as to render stirring out of doors next to
impossible. Nor can any precaution prevent the inhabitants from being
annoyed by it, as much within doors as without.
At length the wished-for day, on which the next effort for reaching the
place of our destination was to be made, appeared. The morning was calm,
but the land wind getting up about noon, on the 12th of November we
weighed anchor, and soon left far behind every scene of civilization and
humanized manners, to explore a remote and barbarous land; and plant in
it those happy arts, which alone constitute the pre-eminence and dignity
of other countries.
The live animals we took on board on the public account from the Cape,
for stocking our projected colony, were, two bulls, three cows, three
horses, forty-four sheep, and thirty-two hogs, besides goats, and a very
large quantity of poultry of every kind. A considerable addition to this
was made by the private stocks of the officers, who were, however, under
a necessity of circumscribing their original intentions on this head
very much, from the excessive dearness of many of the articles. It will
readily be believed, that few of the military found it convenient to
purchase sheep, when hay to feed them costs sixteen shillings a hundred
weight.
The boarding-houses on shore, to which strangers have recourse, are more
reasonable than might be expected. For a dollar and a half per day
we were well lodged, and partook of a table tolerably supplied in the
French style. Should a traveller's stock of tea run short, it is a
thousand chances to one that he will be able to replenish it here at a
cheaper rate than in England. He may procure plenty of arrack and white
wine; also raisins, and dried fruits of other sorts. If he dislikes to
live at a boarding-house, he will find the markets well stored, and the
price of butcher's meat and vegetables far from excessive.
Just before the signal for weighing was made, a ship, under American
colours, entered the road, bound from Boston, from whence she had sailed
one hundred and forty days, on a trading voyage to the East Indies. In
her route, she had been lucky enough to pick up several of the inferior
officers and crew of the Harcourt East-Indiaman, which ship had been
wrecked on one of the Cape de Verd Islands. The master, who appeared
to be a man of some information, on being told the destination of our
fleet, gave it as his opinion, that if a reception could be secured,
emigrations would take place to New South Wales, not only from the old
continent, but the new one, where the spirit of adventure and thirst for
novelty were excessive.